1680--What's next?
ESIMON
I have a 1680 rating on FIBS. Play JellyFish very often. It's been a great
teacher. Read the usual books although found them less useful than JellyFish.
What's the next logical step to become a better player? What for instance, does
a play with an 1780 rating do better?
David Montgomery
In article <199807060130...@ladder01.news.aol.com> esi...@aol.com (ESIMON) writes:
>I have a 1680 rating on FIBS. Play JellyFish very often. It's been a great
>teacher. Read the usual books although found them less useful than JellyFish.
>What's the next logical step to become a better player?
A player with a 1780 rating makes fewer and smaller mistakes.
Here's how you get better:
1) Identify your mistakes
2) Understand your mistakes
3) Quit making those mistakes
Repeat as necessary.
-------
1) Identify your mistakes
You don't mention if you have JF tutor or player. If you don't have
the tutor, get it.
Play games against JF. I prefer to play a game with comments turned
off, logging it to a file, and then review the game with comments turned
on. Print out your large errors.
Play matches on FIBS. Log the matches to a file and convert the file
to a JF .mat file. (Go to fibs.com for more info on logging a fibs match
appropriate to your software.) Review the match with JF. Print out
your large errors.
"Large" depends on your level of play, and how much time you have to
study. At 1680, I think you could start out by just printing out positions
where JF says you make a .10 mistake -- my guess is that in short order
you would have a large stack of positions.
-------
2) Understand your mistakes
Now study these positions. Use your printouts like flashcards.
Cover up the JF evaluations and decide on your play. Check against JF.
Go over and over your mistakes until you wouldn't make them anymore.
Try to understand why your move is wrong, and JF's is better. Try to
think of how you would need to see the position differently, in order
to make the right play. Try to figure out what concepts you are
overvaluing, and what concepts you are undervaluing.
JF is great at identifying where we are making big mistakes, but not
at telling us what the concepts are that we need to get plays right.
For the concepts, you need human help.
You mention that you have read the "usual" books. I'm not sure what
these are, but here is what I think you should read to get the concepts
that stronger players use.
First:
Paul Magriel's _Backgammon_
Kit Woolsey's _Matchqiz_ annotated matches. There are a few books
available, but better is to get the software from Hal Heinrich,
and buy the most recent year or two of annotated matches.
I think for someone at your strength the above texts are the best
things to read (and reread (and reread)) to become grounded in the
concepts you need to play at a higher level. Note that you read these
to understand how to think about the game -- not to learn the particular
play recommendations made. Many of Paul and Kit's suggestions in
these texts are wrong, but that isn't important. They show you how
you should be thinking about backgammon.
If you get through the above and want to read more, all of the
following are very good and each will add some concepts to your
repertoire:
Kit Woolsey and Hal Heinrich's _New Ideas in Backgammon_
Bill Robertie's _Advanced Backgammon_, _Reno 1986_,
and _Lee Genud vs Joe Dwek_
Roy Friedman's _World Class Backgammon Move by Move_
Ortega et al.'s _Costa Rica 1993_, _Cost Rica 1994_,
and _Cube's and Gammons Near the End of the Match_.
The last three, by Ortega and his co-authors, are the best texts
for getting into match strategy.
Beyond this, if you have problems understanding and correcting your
errors, you may want to get lessons. Having someone to whom you
can present your mistakes, whom you can ask questions and who can
ask you questions, can be the most valuable thing. A number of players
give lessons online.
-------
3) Quit making those mistakes
We're all trying!
David Montgomery
mo...@cs.umd.edu
monty on FIBS
pstr...@my-dejanews.com
In article <6npjc6$j...@krackle.cs.umd.edu>,
mo...@cs.umd.edu (David Montgomery) wrote:
>
> In article <199807060130...@ladder01.news.aol.com>
> esi...@aol.com (ESIMON) writes:
>
> I have a 1680 rating on FIBS. Play JellyFish very often. It's been a great
> teacher. Read the usual books although found them less useful than JellyFish.
> What's the next logical step to become a better player?
Master the cube. I read that an expert player with no clue about how to use
the cube will lose out in the long run to a fair player with expert knowledge
of the cube.
While I don't know if it's true or not, I've had many matches against sub 1600
players where I'd lose two or three one poing games, then win a four point
game to win the match.
> What for instance, does a play[er] with an 1780 rating do better?
Perhaps nothing. JellyFish, for example, has had ratings fluctuations from
up over 2,000 to down under 1900. Myself, my rating has been as high as 1840
and as low as 1629. I'm currently at 1760, with over 6,000 exp.
Philip
Send me email at pstr...@SPAMSUCKShotmail.com (remove the capital letters).
I do not read the Deja News email; it's reserved for spam.
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flash
When I play thoughtfully and sober it tends to fluctuate around 1800.
Massive fluctuations, even those over 200 points, are not unexpected as
the rating rises. If you have a 1400-1500 rating the fluctuations will be
far more modest than if you have a rating of 1700-1900.
You have received excellent advice, especially from Dave Montgomery.
The only thing that I wish to add is that you ought to play in real-world
tournaments; and you would do well to join a Backgammon Club.
For a tournament schedule and a listing of clubs refer to
http://homepage.interaccess.com/~chipoint/
FLASHGAMMON